Online Computer Games for Baby

The mere thought of this may horrify you, but our kids see what we do and sooner or later they'll want to copy it.

I have a habit of having baby on my knee while I read my emails and look things up on the net. At about 4 months she was dying to get her hands on the keyboard and rather than fight it I had a hunt for some baby suitable games.

I was looking for games that respond to any keystroke, ie are not mouse driven. Even at 8 months baby's 'technique' is to periodically raise her fists and then lean heavily on the keyboard.

Most games for this age group are of the peek-a-boo variety or simple 'cause and effect' ie they hit a key the screen changes or a noise is made. My daughter prefers the ones that make a noise when she hits (literally!) the keyboard.

These are the best I found:

• Fisher Price - online games and activities
• Kneebouncers - a whole lotta fun for the itty bitty ones

An internet search will bring up a lot of results but once you eliminate the sites requiring registration and the games aimed at older children (or dripping in advertising), there ain't much left.

The Baby Gamer website has a few more listed.

Cautions

• Some of these games load very noisily. Have the volume down low to start with or baby might be startled into tears. Game Over.
• Some games take a while to load or are several clicks deep, so if your little one is impatient have them ready to go before you sit down together.
• For some reason some games get a bad reaction. I have no idea why but my girl becomes immediately tearful at the sounds made by 'Splish splash' at Kneebouncers.
• Most importantly: SAVE YOUR WORK! Baby will inevitably hit a key combination that causes your computer to close files or even shut down. Again, Game Over!
  If you loose the menu at the top of your screen (in IE) F11 will bring it back. If you can't see how to close a screen Alt F4 will close the top most window.